Namkeen case reaches a dead end

Interestingly enough, the police said earlier this month: “We are looking for one man. He has not been identified by name, but we have prepared his portrait. Only from him can we find out the source of the food. This is very important as we have to find out if there is more stock. If there is, it will have to be destroyed.”

Today, a senior police said, “It doesn’t matter if this person or someone else delivered the snacks in that vehicle, as the offence is now non-cognizable. The court has to give us permission for a further probe.”

After the election day incident, a case was registered at the Defence Colony police station under Section 328 (causing food poisoning with an intention to commit an offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

In the first week of December, corroborative reports from both the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) stated that the namkeen contained fungus and not poison.

The case was subsequently converted under Section 273 (sale of noxious food or drink) IPC. This is a non-cognizable offence. The South District police have now sent a report, stating that the namkeen contained fungus and not poison, to the prosecution branch and this will be forwarded to the court of Metropolitan Magistrate R.K. Chauhan. As the case has been converted to a non-cognizable one, the police now say that they need legal sanction to continue the inquiry. The Delhi Government had ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident on December 7.

The namkeen was reportedly distributed by unidentified people to children in the jhuggi while the elders were getting ready to cast their vote. On that day Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP-South) Pradeep Srivastava said that some jhuggi dwellers were suspected to be behind the incident. The snacks were sent for forensic tests to ascertain the cause of poisoning.

At the hospital the victims alleged that the incident was masterminded with intent to prevent people from voting. On the night of November 23 six people — including four wrestlers — had been arrested from the jhuggi. They claimed to be party workers.

The men who distributed the snacks apparently had their faces covered and distributed the packets among the children an hour before polling started. Unsuspecting elders who were having their morning cup of tea also joined in.

A day after the incident, the police said with great confidence that the toxicological tests had revealed that the namkeen was laced with methaquonolone a drug often used as an intoxicant and sold under the brand names Mandrax and Nindra. This statement was retracted the following day.

On November 27 the case got murkier with the police claiming that they found crumpled pamphlets of Janata Dal candidate Rampal Singh inside two of the contaminated namkeen packets. While the police later said that the pamphlets didn’t prove anything conclusive, they never questioned Singh.

In early December the police claimed that they were looking for that one elusive man, and a portrait had also been prepared. And now the case is virtually closed.